County’s Bold Plan To Build Mixed-Income Housing In The Heart of Jersey City Is A Model For How Local Governments Can Act In The Face Of Overwhelming Housing Pressure

The bustling cityscape of the greater Journal Square area is punctuated by occasional dead zones of broken asphalt and parked vehicles.  In recent years, as redevelopment in the Square has entered full swing, the majority of the private parking lots in the neighborhood have given way to more productive uses, leaving most of the remaining parking lots in the area in the control of various local government institutions at the city and county level.  Now, officials in Hudson County government, including county executive Craig Guy and Hudson County Improvement Authority’s general counsel Bill Matsikoudis, are reimagining how the county handles these underutilized properties.

While the outline of the plans has been reported previously, we wanted to provide a detailed look at the plans here.  In all, four properties are being considered for redevelopment by the county: One near Bergen Square, the County Plaza site, some parcels at Newark and Baldwin Avenues in Hilltop, and a site on Hoboken Ave at Five Corners.  The Five Corners site has not been reported on in previous articles.

Bergen Square

Bergen Square is the historic heart of Jersey City; it is here that Dutch settlers founded the village of Bergen in 1660, on four square blocks around the intersection of Bergen Ave and Academy St, with a defensive stockade along Van Reypen Ave, Vroom St, Jones St, and Newkirk St enclosing the original village.  Today, the southwest corner of the original village, where Jones St and Vroom St meet, is occupied by an odd-shaped county parking lot that grew incrementally between the 1960s and the early 2000’s via a series of acquisitions and demolitions of houses and apartment buildings. Currently, the parcel has capacity for 87 cars.  Now, the county is planning to put this land to better use. County officials are mulling possibly 456 homes on the site in a 24-story structure (NOTE: The heights, unit counts, and parking counts mentioned throughout this article are extremely tentative and illustrative only). 

A zoning change would be required for the property to allow 24 stories; currently 5 stories are allowed.  On this site and all others mentioned in this article, the county is aiming to set aside at least 20% of all apartments for families with low and moderate incomes (30% to 80% of Area Median Income), with higher set-asides and inclusion of workforce housing set-asides (80% to 100% of Area Median Income) if financially feasible.  Tentatively, the county is planning for 332 parking stalls at the site, though county officials admit this number is in flux. Matsikoudis notes that he is a fan of the late economist Donald Shoup’s book The High Cost of Free Parking, and the county is considering making parking dual use for both county employees and local residents and creating more options for the public as well.

At the dead end of Smith Street, the county is pursuing eminent domain of two residential structures, 20 and 22 Smith, to make the parcel’s shape more conducive to efficient floor plans. Eminent domain proceedings for 22 Smith are already in full swing.

Hilltop

Along one of the more forlorn stretches of generally busy and vibrant Newark Ave, where it meets Baldwin Ave, sits a lone three-story brick tenement with a Blimpie at its base. Hugging it on two sides is a county parking lot with around 70 parking spaces for county employees. Behind the Blimpie are another 6 parking spaces. Because of the awkward Tetris-like shape of the parking lot, the county is pursuing acquisition of the Blimpie building to create a square-shaped development site. Altogether, the combined site would span about 28,000 square feet, or almost two-thirds of an acre.

As with the Bergen Square site, this site would also require a zoning change. Namely, the area is currently zoned under Jersey City’s NC (Neighborhood Commercial) district, which allows 5-story residential buildings by right, and under the R-1 district. The county is pursuing adding the parcel to the Journal Square 2060 Redevelopment Plan with some bespoke zoning that would allow a larger structure. At its May 5 meeting, the Jersey City Municipal Council voted to kick off the rezoning process with a vote to direct the Planning Board to study a declaration of the parcels as an Area in Need of Redevelopment.

Five Corners

Five Corners, where Summit Avenue, Hoboken Avenue, and Newark Avenue meet, was likely already a crossroads of footpaths in pre-colonial times. While much traffic passes through the intersection today, however, the intersection is relatively sleepy, with its northeastern corner occupied by a long-vacant suburban-style drive-thru station owned by M&T Bank. Next to it is a long and narrow county maintenance garage dating to the early 20th century, and east of that, tucked behind stately St Paul’s Lutheran Church, is a parking lot owned by the church and leased by the county, with about 67 parking stalls. The county’s vision for this site, is to acquire the M&T Bank site (or engage in a joint venture with the site’s future owners) and the church-owned parking lot to build a tower spanning all three sites. Currently, the site is zoned for residential towers at least 45 stories, and likely up to 51 stories tall if various bonus provisions can be applied. The county is looking to build at least a 31-story tower with 493 units and up to 300 parking stalls on the consolidated site.

One source of uncertainty is the fate of the M&T Bank site. In February, the company finally issued a prospectus for the property; at least two of the bidders on the site are in talks with the county about a possible joint venture if they win the bid.

County Plaza

The final site in the county’s housing vision is the County Plaza site. These properties sit in a liminal space straddling the edge of the Palisades cliff, between Trenton Street in the Hilltop section to the north, and the Montgomery Street viaduct connecting to downtown to the south. A sleepy urban renewal area called the Montgomery Street Redevelopment Plan that was redeveloped in suburban fashion in the 1970s and 1980s sits to east of the site. Around the county office building at the center of the site are parking lots with a capacity of over 500 vehicles. In addition to employee parking, county-owned cars, trucks, trailers, and even boats are stored on these lots.

Here again, the county is seeking rezoning, though it is not generally seeking to acquire non-county-owned parcels (with the possible exception of one small vacant PSE&G parcel at the corner of Mercer Loop and Wayne Street). Altogether, the county’s land holdings here amount to about 15 acres, making it by far the largest parcel to redevelop, albeit the farthest from rapid transit.

Parts of the site will be developed as parkland. Renderings show appealing open spaces that take advantage of the site’s natural grade changes and views of the cityscape around New York Bay.

Making It Happen

As mentioned above, several moving parts will need to come together to make the projects happen.

First and foremost, the county will need zoning changes from the Municipal Council for all the sites except for the Hoboken Ave site. This means public input will be crucial in shaping the proposals. The county will hold a public meeting on May 21 at County Plaza at 7pm to present the plans to residents of the Beacon and the Mosque Colony.

Given the high levels of subsidized apartments included in the plans, financing will need to be teed up from multiple government agencies in addition to capital attracted from private developers and labor unions. The county is seeking tax credits from the state, either through Aspire or similar programs. In addition, the county is eying over $20 million in HOME and HOME ARP funds from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development; the county is also actively seeking other federal earmarks. Hudson County Open Space Trust Fund monies will be earmarked for the park component at County Plaza.

The many moving parts and the sheer scale of the proposals make the county’s vision extremely ambitious. Yet given the magnitude of Jersey City’s housing crunch, this level of ambition seems well matched to meet the moment.

If you want to learn more about the county’s plans, the Hudson County Young Democrats are hosting Bill Matsikoudis as a guest speaker on May 19 at AndCo Grove during their May chapter meeting.